Friday, March 29, 2024

How To Ace The Google Interview

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Why Do Behavioral Interviews Matter

How To Ace The Google Coding Interview – Complete Guide

Acing the technical interview is obviously important, but the behavioral interview is just as critical if you want to stand out as a desirable candidate. Technical skills are replaceable, after all. What really makes you hireable must go beyond those skills to something else. This insight into your behavior and capacity for self-reflection may be the thing that makes or breaks you in the job hunt.

A hiring team wants to bring someone on board who will make their lives easier and who will fit in with the company. Behavioral interviews are a vital determining factor. They are even used for reducing legal risks, implementing policies of equality, and building fulfilling work environments.

Its a common misconception in the tech world that soft skills are less important than technical skills. The reality is quite the opposite: soft skills are often the determining factor for hiring a candidate. Soft skills will make or break you as a potential hire.

They demonstrate longevity, problem-solving skills, and the ability to work on a team. In fact, soft skills are one of the only ways to stand out to non-developers on the hiring committee, who may not be familiar with the technical skills you bring to the table. Behavioral interviews matter just as much as your coding interviews, so, its time to prepare!

How To Ace An Interview At Google Salesforce And More

So youve made it your mission to score a game-changing job with one of Glassdoors 2017 Employees Choice honorees. Nice! Great move to aim high and target employers that have a reputation for creating stellar professional cultures.

So how do you get your foot in the door to pursue a role with one of these in-demand employers? After you refresh your candidacypackage and solidify your personal brand, you distinguish yourself as an informed candidate. And when it comes to conducting that research, Glassdoors got you covered.

Learn about the leadership, workplace culture, salary and the interview processes at some of the coolest companies by reviewing Glassdoors data and reviews to see what past interviewees, current, and former staff have reported. This way you get the inside scoop so that you can access whether or not you might find fit there.

Heres the lowdown on some of Glassdoor 2017 Best Places to Work award winners to set your wheels in motion:

How To Ace A Senior Role Interview

When trying to find your first job there are a lot of different resources out there that can help you but what happens when you now have a considerable amount of experience and are looking for a more senior position? Interviews change, become less theoretical and more centred around the experiences you have had.

Interviewers are now looking for a more polished candidate who has both the relevant skill set and an in-depth knowledge of their industry. Here are a few things to keep in mind when searching for a job once you have gained some experience.

Also Check: Mailscoop Io

S To Ace Any Job Interview And Stand Out

A new job can unlock a whole world of possibilities, but the pressure to favorably present your skills, experience, and your ability to make a good first impression can make any job search an intimidating endeavor.

Content contributor

Although the interview process can be daunting, preparation is the key to building your confidence and proving that youre the best candidate. Learn how to ace an interview with 19 steps that will help you stand out and succeed.

Pass The Resume Screening

How to Ace Googles Product Strategy Interview

The first part of Googles hiring process is, similar to most corporate jobs, resume screening. In this round, recruiters will screen your resume for technical requirements, education, experience,.. to make sure youre a potential fit.

Although hiring criteria depend on roles and company, the fundamental principles of writing winning resumes at Google is almost identical to writing winning consulting resumes. There are three fundamental rules you must apply in your resume:

Using professional, structured, and to-the point language implicitly shows screeners that youre a good communicator. Highlighting your achievements with explicit numbers and good structures also save screening time and leaves a good impression.

Before moving on, I highly recommend you checking out my consulting resume overview and specifically look at the resume examples I corrected to see how these rules can supercharge your resume.

Read Also: Questions To Ask A Cfo During An Interview

Practice Like You Play

Effective practice is realistic practice.

In the midst of an interview, you want to be focused and able to spend the majority of your mental energy on the problem given from the interviewer. You dont want to be thrown off by extraneous factors such as not being used to writing code in a non-IDE environment.

Here is a list of factors that you should be mindful of when developing your practice regimen.

Time Constraints

The phone interview is 30-45 minutes, and each of the one-on-one onsite interviews will be roughly 45 minutes to an hour each. In each of these scenarios, you will be presented with at least one question, which, in most cases, is a coding category question.

In order to effectively practice under time constraints, one strategy would be to select one specific problem.

For instance, selecting a problem from one of the book or video resources under the Additional Resources section of this post would be a good place to start. Then, start a timer and attempt to solve the problem without access to an IDE.

Following this practice for a few different categories of questions will give you some signal with respect to how you are faring with time constraints. Getting optimal solutions within the time interval of 30-45 minutes consistently for problems of varying difficulty is the ultimate goal. If you are struggling to hit this goal, use this as an opportunity to tighten up this area is something you will need to work on.

Whiteboarding

Pressure Constraints

Google Behavioral Interview Questions About Teamwork

It’s inevitable that while working at Google you’ll work with members of different teams. The most obvious crossover will be with other product managers, PMMs, or software engineers.

You’ll need to have strong communication skills and be able to build trust among your teammates. These teamwork questions will try to understand how you work with others.

Your interviewer will press you to give examples from your previous work where you’ve worked with teammates to achieve goals.

They’re looking for you to mention collaboration and achieving your goals while working with others.

Teamwork is a very important skill you’ll need to highlight during your Google interviews.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Behavioral Questions

What Is The Star Framework

We recommend using the STAR framework in the Google interview process to answer questions.

STAR is short for:

  • Action
  • Result

You may have heard of the STAR method before or even subconsciously used it yourself. At its core, it encourages you to break your answers into four parts. Describe the situation, what task you were given, what action you took, and what results you achieved.

Internalizing the STAR framework will help your answers shine through.

Here’s how to use the STAR method to answer any Google interview questions you get asked.

This technique is a common interview strategy at dozens of interviews. So much so that we made a complete course on how to answer questions in both behavioral and technical interviews.

Read More: The STAR Interview Framework

Behavioral Interviews: How To Prepare And Ace Interview Questions

Ace Your Next Job Interview | Grow with Google

As a software engineer, when you think of interviewing, you probably only conjure up images of solving technical coding problems on a whiteboard. Turns out, theres a lot more to interviewing than your technical skills alone. Behavioral and cultural interviews are now an essential part of your hireability as a candidate.

Many talented candidates can get overwhelmed by behavioral interviews since they seem far less straightforward than technical questions. But have no fear! Today, we want to walk you through all the need-to-know information about behavioral interviews to dispel the fears and empower you as a candidate.

Heres what well cover today:

Get hands-on with behavioral interview prep today.

Try one of our 300+ courses and learning paths: Grokking the Behavioral Interview.

Recommended Reading: How To Prepare System Design Interview

What Are The Top Questions To Ask An Interviewer

As a I always recommend that asking a question is your opportunity to leverage control over the interview and show off your strengths, meaning your research, knowledge of the company, your ability to solve problems and generate a positive engagement.

1) Ive recently read in an article in IT weekly that Google Cloud is planning on challenging AWS in a number of key areas. I think the biggest challenge will be convincing companies come out of the amazon eco-system, despite a better product. I believe of the ways we can overcome this challenge is by creating spaces where companies can come in and experience Google Cloud having a mixture of consultative sales and direct sale approach. What are your thoughts on this?

2) I can see that there is a great atmosphere and chemistry between yourselves and the teams. What would you say is the best thing about working here?

3) In doing my research in to abc, I believe the following areas ____ ____ ____ would be my key priorities when coming in to the role. What are your thoughts on this?

Google Requires A Variety Of Expertise

Google wants product managers who have a variety of expertise. Theyre strictly interested in candidates with advanced expertise, experience, and knowledge of engineering, product design, product sense, business sense, and analytics. If you fall short in one or more of these areas, do whatever it takes to get up to speed in the days, weeks, and months leading up to your interview.

This approach is in contrast to the majority of other companies that dont require nearly as much expertise. These companies are also interested in hiring top PM talent, but theyre more lenient in this area. You dont need to be an expert across the board.

Also Check: What Should Females Wear To A Job Interview

Provide An Example Where Youve Had To Make A Difficult Decision

In this Google interview questions and answers blog, one thing that you may have noticed is that Google value the process above all else and the most important being your thought! With this particular question it is important to firstly highlight all the variables that you have to consider, sign post what they are and then go through the value of each one, by one within the context of why you have to make a decision. Through this process you should be able to successfully answer this question.

Guarantee Absolutely No Interruptions

10 Steps to Ace an Online Interview

Thats not just telling your flatmate to steer clear. Think about that barking dog or maybe even the crying baby. Manage the things you can control ahead of the event. Turn off any notifications on your computer. Silence your mobile phone. Close your mail client, Facebook and other networking apps. J You know the drill.

Its a job interview, so come prepared and treat the Skype or Google Hangout interview as you would any in-person interview. Be professional and likeable and ace it.

Give cues that youre actively listening. Ask well thought out questions. Send a sincere thank you note when the interview is finished. And, most importantly, dont rush things during the interview. Remember to hunt wisely!

Read Also: Design Interview Preparation

Google Case Interview Examples And Answers

Example #1: What differences would you take into account when selling a product to a client in India versus a client in Argentina?

Sample solution: To answer this, create a framework that shows the most important characteristics or qualities of each country that you would want to look into. For example, one potential framework may look into the customer needs and preferences, the competitive landscape, market trends, and Googles capabilities across the two countries.

Example #2: If you were a Google Search competitor entering a new market and had a small market share, how would you convince advertisers to advertise with you?

Sample solution: To answer this question, you should be familiar with Google Search. You can create a framework that outlines the products strengths and weaknesses so that you can identify gaps in customer needs.

Example #3: What are three areas that Google should invest in?

Sample solution: To answer this question, it may be helpful to clarify what Googles primary objective is. Are they looking to increase profits, revenues, or number of users? The ideas that you brainstorm may vary depending on their actual goals. Next, develop a framework to organize your ideas. You may want to think about areas of investments as short-term investments, medium-term investments, and long-term investments.

Example #4: If you were the CEO of AdSense, what would be your strategy to improve the product?

Talk To Current And Former Google Employees

Exponent’s coaching portal connects you with tech professionals in every field at dozens of companies.

Practice mock interviews, get career advice, and prepare for your next role. Our expert coaches can help you practice behavioral interview questions so you’re ready to answer any curveballs thrown your way.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to preparing for your upcoming Google and Google Cloud behavioral interviews.

How are you preparing for your behavioral interviews? Let us know in the comments below!

Read Also: Questions To Ask Cfo In Interview

Entering Or Expanding On A Market

For example, lets say you are a PM at Tesla and youre trying to answer: How can Tesla sell more cars?Bad PM: *just starts brainstorming* There are a few things, Tesla could launch a car rental service, or rent out their EV charging stations to other EV car companies.In this way, the PM is throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. If something works, they wont know why and because there is no methodical process, there is no way of figuring out what is working vs. not working how to double down on the things that are working to repeat success.Good PM: Teslas goal is to sell more cars. So Tesla could launch a car rental service that allows Tesla owners to rent out cars on a network. This would lower the friction involved in potential buyers test driving a Tesla, and also create an extra stream of revenue.This is better than the previous answer, because the PM establishes a framework but then falls short when the PM immediately deep dives into one solution. The ideal would be to explore several options , come up with criteria for honing down on one, and then dive deeper into one because X.Great PM:Teslas goal is to sell more cars. There are several aspects from which we could look at this:

  • Launch new features
  • Sales and Marketing

Is Your Interview Remote Check Your Equipment And Find A Quiet Place

How to ace interviews from FAANG (Google, Facebook, Microsoft)

Phone or video interviews often precede in-person interviews lately. Although everyone is familiar with the frustration of technical difficulties, a bad connection, dim lighting, or a noisy background can distract from the great impression youre hoping to make.

Ace an interview with the following remote interview tips:

  • Find a clean, uncluttered background.
  • Either set up a ring light or face a source of natural light.
  • Make sure your webcam is at eye level.
  • Try to make sure youre in a quiet space. If its a phone interview, make sure youre in a spot with good reception.
  • Do a practice run with a friend via video to make sure everything goes as planned.

Also Check: Best Interview Attire For A Woman

Top Data Structures And Algorithms Every Developer Must Know

Many shudder at the thought of a coding interview. It can be stressful, grueling, and challenging. Oftentimes, it can be a struggle simply to know what topics to prepare.

Today, you will be introduced to the primary data structures and algorithms that are tested in a coding interview. After reading this article, you should have a good idea of what you need to prepare for to land your dream job.

We will cover the following:

Prepare Smart Questions In Advance

Remember how you reviewed the job description and researched the company? That particular prep work is about to help prove that youre interested in this specific position for this exact company not just someone who stumbled in on a random and indiscriminate job hunt.

At some point during the interview, youll most likely be invited to ask your own questions and this is an opportunity that you shouldnt pass up. Demonstrate that youre eager to learn, interested in the position and the company, and have a general understanding of what they need and what they do through a series of thoughtful questions. Consider questions like:

  • What would a typical day in this position look like?
  • What challenges could this position help solve?
  • Can you share some examples of the types of projects this position would work on?
  • What metrics or KPIs would help quantify the success of this role?
  • Are there any specific products or goals that the company is currently focused on?

Read Also: Questions To Ask The Cfo In An Interview

Provide An Example Where Youve Had A Disagreement With A Colleague Or Manager

This is one of those Google interview questions irrespective of whether youre interviewing for a technical or non technical job role its bound to come up and is a question that you need to be fully prepared for. Before trying to answer this question the key is to understand the purpose behind it. For this its really about how youre able to demonstrate a competent level of emotional intelligence as well as conviction in your own position i.e. if you believe that the other persons position is detrimental to the project, how far are you willing to pursue your position without negatively impacting the relationship.

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